SE Illinois News

State Rep. Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) is urging Gov. J.B. Pritzker to veto the reform bill now headed to his desk.

“No nothing bill in the legislature,” Niemerg told The Center Square. “It doesn’t really tackle the culture of corruption that we need to tackle here in the state of Illinois, and it is really unfortunate.”

The bill is designed to end the so-called revolving door of lawmakers leaving the legislature and later returning to lobby the General Assembly they were once a part of. The push for reform comes at a time when Springfield continues to be the subject of a far-reaching federal corruption probe that has already implicated longtime, former House Speaker Mike Madigan in a patronage and bribery scandal.

Critics like Niemerg are outraged that the proposed legislation doesn’t afford the Legislative Inspector General (LIG) the power to investigate anything that isn’t a violation of the Illinois Governmental Ethics Act or other laws “related to the member’s or employee's public duties.”

More recently, LIG Carol Pope tendered her resignation, lamenting that the last legislative session demonstrated true ethics reform is not a priority.

Veteran state Rep. Dan Caulkins (R-Decatur) agreed.

“I think the problem we have is that this bill has been exposed for what it is and the five of us who voted against it are kind of vindicated,” he said.

Instead, Caulkins and his colleagues are calling on lawmakers from both sides of the aisle to come together to pass serious reform that would include granting the LIG more independence, increasing the time after serving in the General Assembly that someone can register as a lobbyist and including nonpartisan citizen representation on the Legislative Ethics Commission.

Senate Ethics Commission chairwoman Sen. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy) vowed her party “will continue to send a meaningful ethics reform package to the governor.”